Bobby sat in the back seat of the car, letting Eames ride shotgun while Logan drove them all to the hospital. Bobby wanted to talk with Matt Walker and Eames did as well. Walker was their number one suspect in terms of someone potentially providing the information to Theo Fernandez, triggering the events of the past 24 hours.
Olivia Benson had stepped up to take care of Addie. Leaving Addie with Olivia was actually an easy call for Bobby. Olivia had been a part of Addie's life, even before her birth. Lucy and Olivia were good personal friends, so Addie knew and felt comfortable with Olivia. Eames had arranged for some unmarked NYPD to sit on the house, to make certain Addie would be safe.
Bobby jumped as his cell phone started ringing. The sudden movement caused a rush of pain, which made him feel a bit nauseous. But, he swallowed that down and answered the phone.
"So Detective, do you have a plan? Have you already set something in motion?" Theo Fernandez asked in that close, personal friend type tone of voice.
"Let me talk with Lucy." Bobby replied, pointing at the phone. Eames was calling it in. She had set it up for incoming call's to Bobby's phone to be traced and for the point of origin to be located.
"Oh come now Detective, why so short with me?" Fernandez laughed lightly.
"Lucy?" Bobby could hear that despite his remark, Fernandez had handed the phone to someone. "Are you all right?" Bobby asked.
"I'm cold." She said, "like the wind is blowing right through me." Her voice was soft, maybe a little weak. Bobby was nervous.
"I guess you should probably pack her a sweater." Fernandez was back on the phone. "Or maybe I will just hold her to keep her warm."
"Put Lucy back on the phone, I'm not convinced you haven't hurt her. If you hurt her…" Bobby's threat remained unfinished.
"I'm Ok. I'm just cold." Lucy was on the phone again, just for a moment, and then gone.
"I think that uses up all of our time." Fernandez remarked. "Make sure you make those plans. I will be back in touch." He said, and then ended the call. Eames was already shaking her head indicating that they were unable to identify a point of origin. The call had been too short.
"Is she Ok?" Logan asked, continuing to head toward the hospital.
"She said she was cold." Bobby mumbled to himself, leaning back against the seat, closing his eyes. He hated that Fernandez had her, he hated that she was cold. He felt sick, remembering when she was pregnant how she was always hot, she was forever taking off her clothes, kicking off the blankets, turning on the air conditioning even on a cold day. She was the same now that she was breastfeeding. She said her hormones made her hot, all of the time. And, that she should say she was cold meant that something was seriously wrong. "She said the wind is blowing right through her." Bobby whispered, looking out the window, at the clouds moving quickly by in the sky.
"Is she Ok?" Logan repeated the question. "Is she hurt?" Logan was thinking about Bobby asking specifically if Fernandez had hurt her.
"She said she was Ok, just that she was cold." Bobby repeated, kind of trailing off at the end. Logan was pulling into the hospital. Bobby opened the passenger side door, feeling the breeze on his face. But the breeze was warm, not cold. As if he was on automatic pilot, he followed Logan and Eames through the hospital corridors to where Matt Walker had been transferred to a room. Bobby didn't know why he should feel surprise, but the hallway was crowded with cops. In his mind, he had already pretty much convicted Walker as betraying him, but he hadn't verbalized his suspicions. So, everyone was turning out to lend support. Walker was in critical condition and he had not regained consciousness.
"I'm sorry man." Brian Murphy walked over to Bobby. Murphy was referring to Lucy. "This is crazy." Murphy ran his hand through his longish hair and looked into his partner's room.
"Has he um… has he…" Bobby stammered a bit and gestured to Walker. "Said anything?" Bobby asked, finally managed to complete a thought.
"Naw, he lost a lot of blood. They had to do surgery to remove the bullet." Murphy offered. Bobby could tell that everyone in the hall who was pretending not to listen to their conversation was listening very carefully.
"Right." Bobby looked past Murphy, back into Walker's room. Bobby really needed to talk with Walker.
"Why?" Murphy was asking, and at first Bobby didn't exactly know what Murphy was asking about.
"Why, uh, what?" Bobby asked. He was tired. More tired than he wanted to admit.
"Why do you want to know if Walker said anything?" Murphy asked.
"Nothing. It's nothing." Bobby said, now he was running his hand through his hair. "Nothing." Bobby shook his head, he could see Eames down the hallway talking with someone. He looked around for Logan.
"Fernandez. He called you." Murphy kept talking with Bobby, who was only part way paying attention. Bobby wanted to talk with Eames, to talk out loud a bit, to talk things through about how to play this, to figure out the best way to how to get Lucy back safely, quickly.
"Yeah, yeah he did." Bobby replied.
"What'd he say?" Murphy asked. "Did you get Lucy on the phone?" Murphy revealed that he knew the drill, he knew that Bobby would need to talk with Lucy before even pretending to negotiate with Fernandez.
"She said she was cold." Bobby really had no filter to his thoughts. He was deeply unsettled by what she had said, that she should be cold. Maybe she was hurt, and she just didn't say.
"Cold." Murphy looked out the window. "It's not very cold today." Murphy observed.
"No." Bobby looked out the window as well, again looking at the clouds moving through the sky. Bobby circled back around in his thoughts. If she was unharmed, as she had said, it made no sense that Lucy would say she was cold.
"What?" Eames had come back down the hall. She was standing next to Murphy, looking up at Bobby. She could tell Bobby was thinking about something, thinking through something.
"She said - like the wind is blowing right through me." Bobby repeated Lucy's exact words. Bobby shifted his eyes and looked at Eames. "I know where she is." He said. "She is at that house we raided the other day. The shotgun style house, where the rooms were all lined up, stacked front door to back door, so the wind could run right through it." Bobby supplied. "Why else would she say that? I used those words when I was talking to her. When I was in the hospital, I was repeating myself, going over the details of the day, circling through my thoughts, I mentioned raiding the house that morning, about the strange southern architecture, about how the design of the house would let the wind run through the rooms and cool the house."
Eames was nodding, ever so slightly. Due to the concussion, Bobby was a bit disoriented so he kept going over the details of the day, and then he would be quiet and circle back through things. He had indeed used those exact words, repeatedly. Eames was walking down the hall, calling in the location of the house, putting things in place to very discreetly surround the place, to check it out. She didn't want to storm the house, she didn't want to spook Fernandez. Bobby spotted Logan, they needed to get back out to the car. Bobby could think of nothing else except getting back out to that house.
A/N: Theo Fernandez was this extremely hot guy that I went to middle and high school with. I came across some old (very old) year books and there he was, writing to me in that sideways kind of way you sign someone's yearbook. He was smooth, very smooth, and I thank him for being the villain. Now... will Bobby catch him?